Chapter 20: Me and My Enemy Father and Brother
In the second half of the night, Ning Bufan waded through water and climbed mountains, and finally arrived at what he called a "safe place".
This cave, carved into the mountainside, had been meticulously cleaned and dust-free. Inside, two natural bluestones, one large and one small, lay. The larger, longer and heavier stone served as a bed, covered with two pillows and a quilt. The smaller stone served as a table, a tea set in the center. Next to it was a white porcelain vase filled with a few wild yellow flowers, still vibrantly blooming.
The person who picked them and put them in the vase has already left.
Ning Bufan put down his bag, covered the teapot on the table, and habitually turned over the two teacups to pour tea.
But when he was halfway through pouring the second cup, his hands suddenly began to tremble violently, and he could no longer hold the teapot. He watched it fall to the ground and shatter, with tea spilling all over the floor and splashing on his clothes.
The crisp sound of breaking porcelain brought him back to the past, and memories came flooding back.
Ming Shaotu had come to the Ning family twelve years ago with Ning Bufan's stepmother. At that time, six months had passed since the disaster in Huangzhou, and the Ning family was still a wealthy family in the area. Ning Bufan was also a carefree, pampered young master who had never suffered hardship.
He remembered that he didn't like this adopted brother at first, and he especially hated the fact that he refused to change his surname and insisted on calling him "brother", and refused to change his name no matter how he made things difficult for him and bullied him.
But Ming Shaotu was very cute when he was young, like a jade doll carved out of snow. He would pull at the corner of your clothes, look up at you with his round black eyes for a while, and your heart would be melted by his gaze.
Such a beautiful child chases after you and calls you brother every day. Even though Ning Bufan has a heart of iron, he is melted by him. In less than two months, his attitude towards him changes from dislike to extreme love. From then on, he spoils him like the stars and the moon.
Before he fell into trouble, Young Master Ning would buy out the entire store just for his younger brother's words of liking it. After he fell into trouble, Ning Bufan would kneel down and beg for his younger brother.
After the Huangzhou disaster broke out, the entire state became a dead zone. People exchanged their children for food, ate Guanyin soil, and even ate their own flesh and blood when they were extremely hungry. Naturally, tender children like Ning Bufan and Ming Shaotu were also regarded as food.
They had to avoid the plague, the locust plague, and the starving victims. The process of escaping from Huangzhou was like walking through the eighteen levels of hell.
Once they were accidentally discovered by several disaster victims. The men, who were emaciated by hunger, grabbed them from their hiding place. Their expressions were as ferocious as those of evil spirits, and they almost ate them alive.
The sharp blade of death hung over his head. Ning Bufan was so terrified that he couldn't speak and lost the strength to struggle. He could only watch the man open his withered mouth and bite his shoulder.
The next moment, Ming Shaotu stretched his hand between the man and him, and the man bit his arm and tore off a piece of flesh.
Ning Bufan saw this scene up close, and the strong and pungent smell of blood lingered at his nose.
The smell lit a fire in his heart, making his blood boil and his internal organs ache.
At this moment, he heard Ming Shaotu say, "I have a lot of meat on my body. You guys eat me and let him go."
...What are you talking about?
Ning Bufan didn't quite remember what happened after that. It was said that in order to protect its owner, the brain would blur or even block overly tragic memories to prevent the owner from dying from excessive shock.
He was probably in this situation. He just felt dizzy at that time. When he came to his senses, those men had been chopped to the ground and their bodies were lying in a pool of blood.
The murder weapon, the sickle, was held in his hand. Sticky blood dripped down the rusty blade, forming a puddle of blood at his feet.
The man who had bitten Ming Shaotu was lying next to the pool of blood. He was chopped into a bloody mess. Before Ning Bufan came to his senses, he was still mechanically chopping his head with the sickle - his mouth was holding Ming Shaotu's flesh.
Ming Shaotu tightly hugged Ning Bufan's waist, his round black eyes reflecting the skylight, staring straight at his mad brother:
"Brother."
His gentle call brought Ning Bufan back to his senses.
The sickle slipped from his hand. Ning Bufan hugged Ming Shaotu and wanted to cry out loud, but his eyes were so dry that no tears could be squeezed out.
So he gave up the idea of venting his anger by crying, and carried Ming Shaotu back to their hiding place - it was a small cellar with pickled vegetables and dried fish left by the warehouse owner. There were not many of them, and some of them had become moldy and spoiled, but they were enough to keep them full for a few days.
The sickle was originally hanging at the door of the warehouse. Ning Bufan proved its usefulness with practical actions, then picked it up again, closed the door from the inside, and sat behind it to block it.
He bandaged Ming Shaotu's wound, held his brother in his arms and coaxed him to sleep, but he himself kept his eyes wide open and stayed awake all night.
Because if he closed his eyes, he would smell the sharp smell of rust, see the eyes of those men who died with their eyes open, and the wound on Ming Shaotu's arm.
Since then, Ning Bufan has never had a good night's sleep again.
When his memory returned, Ning Bufan realized that he was squatting on the ground picking up the broken pieces of the teapot.
"You've walked through the eighteen levels of hell with me, and now you want to leave?" He grabbed a handful of shards, and the sharp porcelain pieces cut his palm, causing severe pain and blood to flow out. "Don't even think about it."
The colorful rope on his wrist lit up, and the colorful light was like a thread, slowly wrapping around his wounds, mending the long and deep bloodstains.
It was as gentle as if someone was holding his hand and blowing on it, coaxing him that "the pain will go away soon."
Ning Bufan covered his face and repeated through almost gritted teeth: "Ming Shaotu, forget it."
…
Even when they returned to the top of the mountain, Chen Yunli was still in a daze and didn't even notice that Chen Wenjian had been holding his hand all the way.
The mountain wind was cold, and the crescent moon hung on top of the tower. The firelight overflowing from the spire dyed a corner of it scarlet. From a distance, it looked eerie and terrifying.
"Go back to your room and rest, it's almost dawn." Once they reached the mountain, with the Sword Sealing Tower Master present, they could no longer discuss how to deal with him. Chen Wenjian let go of his hand, and instead pinched the corner of his sleeve, leading him towards the room.
After being reminded by him, sleepiness came over him belatedly. Chen Yunli yawned and said, "Yeah, I'm going to sleep first. You should get some rest too."
As he spoke, he was about to close the door, but Chen Wenjian suddenly reached out to hold it open.
"Hmm?" Chen Yunli blinked his dry eyes, "Is there anything else?"
Chen Wenjian curled the corners of his lips, and the scarlet moonlight fell into his eyes, reflecting a bright light.
"See you tomorrow morning."
"Oh, yes." Chen Yunli nodded with a smile, "See you tomorrow morning."
Because he slept late the night before, Chen Yunli slept until the afternoon the next day. When he woke up, he saw the Master of the Sword Sealing Tower hurriedly walking out and asked Chen Wenjian to go into the tower to practice.
This was the first time he let Chen Wenjian practice during the day. It seemed that his forging plan had entered the final stage.
Chen Wenjian still pretended to be ignorant and played the role of his well-behaved and obedient disciple as usual. He walked into the Sword Sealing Tower with a knife in hand and came out half an hour later.
There was no doubt that he was seriously injured. When he came out of the tower, his blood had not yet dried and was dripping from the corners of his clothes all over the ground.
Chen Yunli felt pain just watching it, but even if he couldn't bear it, he could do nothing.
This is part of their plan.
After leaving Ning Bufan's house, the two discussed the follow-up actions.
Compared with the Lord of the Sword Sealing Tower, their only advantage is the information asymmetry, that is, the Lord of the Sword Sealing Tower does not know that they have discovered his plan, which leaves them with a lot of room to play.
Forging a spirit sword is an extremely tedious and time-consuming task. It not only requires rare forging materials, but also a large amount of precious auxiliary materials. The refining process cannot allow for even the slightest error. If there is any mistake, not only will all the previous efforts be wasted, but the forger will also suffer backlash and die on the spot.
What Chen Yunli and Chen Wenjian did was very simple, which was to lay mines for him.
Lay mines in every aspect.
Chen Yunli helped Chen Wenjian back to his room and watched him calmly tear open the most serious wound, and the blood flowed into the porcelain bottle prepared in advance.
Chen Yunli's eyes twitched slightly, and he looked away. It hurt to look for even one more second.
After he had bled and the wound had scabbed over, Chen Yunli put away the porcelain bottle. His fingertips brushed across the bottle body that was stained with the temperature of his blood, and he shrank back as if burned.
"Let me confirm what I'm going to do." Chen Yunli bandaged him. "After each training session, keep a little of your blood. Go to the blacksmith shop at the foot of the mountain and buy molten iron to add to the blood. Next time you train, bring it into the tower. Under the guise of being injured during training, use this blood to splash every corner of the sword furnace. Correct?"
Chen Wenjian nodded. Seeing that he looked unhappy, he consoled him, "Don't frown. The blood flowing from my wound can be used as a sharp blade to stab the culprit who created these things. It's better than wasting it."
"...Can you please be a little more considerate of yourself?"
Although he knew that his plan would most likely succeed, Chen Yunli still didn't like his cold attitude of using his body as a tool and rolled his eyes at him.
Chen Wenjian smiled and lowered his head: "I don't feel sorry for you, but you feel sorry for me..."
"What did you say?" Chen Yunli didn't hear clearly.
"It's okay." Chen Wenjian shook his head, "You should go down the mountain."
For the next two months, the Master of the Sword Sealing Tower worked from dawn to dusk every day to find auxiliary materials. Chen Wenjian also changed from practicing only at night to practicing once at noon and once at night. Every time he came out of the Sword Sealing Tower, his injuries were more serious than the last time, and Chen Yunli was able to collect more and more blood.
Chen Yunli found several blacksmith shops in Huaiyang City and went there twice a day. He randomly chose one to buy molten iron, added it to Chen Wenjian's blood, and then brought it back to him.
According to Chen Wenjian, the most taboo in casting spiritual swords is the mixing of impurities, especially impurities from other weapons. Therefore, Chen Yunli always buys weapons first, then takes them to the blacksmith shop to ask someone to help melt them to ensure the purity of the "impurities".
Chen Wenjian poured most of the blood mixed with impurities onto the top floor of the Sword Sealing Tower. The tower master did not notice it because of the blood spilled when he was injured.
He was busy adjusting the ratio of auxiliary materials and figuring out how to melt the Wuwen Sword to extract the forging materials he needed. He was so busy that he had no time to pay attention to the condition of the sword-making furnace.
Perhaps in his eyes, this furnace was the most perfect part of the entire forging process and the one he needed to worry about the least. Because he didn't care, he was completely unaware that the arrangement he thought was perfect was already riddled with holes.
The plans of both parties are going smoothly, so this may be a win-win situation.
Whenever Chen Yunli thought of this, he found it both absurd and funny.
Two months later, one day, Chen Wenjian entered the Sword Sealing Tower as usual to "practice." This time, the Sword Sealing Tower Master didn't wait for him outside, but got up and followed him in.
"Master?" Chen Wenjian stopped and looked at him in confusion.
"You have been practicing with me for quite some time. I happen to be free today, so I'd like to see your progress." The Sword Sealing Tower Master smiled kindly and gently. If Chen Yunli didn't know what he was doing, he would almost think he was a gentle and kind master.
Chen Wenjian pretended to be stunned for a moment, then bowed and stepped aside, asking him to go first.
He fell behind by half a step and caught up. Before entering the tower, Chen Wenjian turned around and looked at Chen Yunli.
Chen Wenjian saw Chen Yunli mouthing, "Be careful."
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